Charvel CSM 1G

made in japan,thats what the pots say,made around 86-91
It has 22 frets
strat style with pick gtuard
It has volume, tone, 5 way selector
the pickups config are H/S/H
They are jackson pickups, the bridge pickup did not work needed some soldering.
normal electronics
alder or basswood
color is black
strat style body
fender style tremolo
charvel_gotoh
thin maple neck, fat frets, rosewood fretboard

suits my styles great rock,blues,heavy
I use crate amps
Rich/Full sound? Bright sound? sound is some what ok
rock, blues seem to fit good with this guitar
I like the neck and the body, everything else needs work to get the sound I want

the action was really good, but still needs some tweaking.
the saddles were different then the original ones' the stirng holes don't line up properly with saddles

at this moment this guitar is good enough for practice only
need custom electronic work

playing for 25years
love the body and neck hate the tremolo
got it at pawn shop for $65.

Same as the others listed. Mine is the deep maroon. Beautiful finish. I gave it a 9 because it has the Fender-style trem. I've never cared for them and don't really use trems. I have it blocked solid to the body.

I've gotten every sound I've ever needed: crunch to super heavy from the bridge hb; nice and clean from the mid single; fat and 'round' solo tone from the neck hb. The neck tone on this thing has the most 'round' sound of any guitar I've played - even a $1500 LP!

I got this guitar new in the early 90's. I've never found anything major wrong with the fit/finish. I do my own setups, and this plays 'bout as good as ANY guitar I've played. It stays in tune very well.

I've played with it live - no probs. I did put on straplocks for personal preference. Otherwise, the only thing I've had to replace other than strings is the 5 way switch.

never needed it

If you can find one for a good price, get it. You won't be disappointed. Very good value, especially for the price point they were originally sold.

I have samples of recordings using this guitar. If you're interrested, email me.

Charvel by Jackson made in Japan; semi strat-style THICK solid body; 22 frets; one each volume and tone controls; 5-way switch; passive hum-single-hum p/up configuration (Jackson's); flat, thin neck; rosewood fretboard; jumbo frets; vintage Fender-style tremolo; stings through back through sustain block of tremolo; graphite nut; Gotah tuners. Mine came with a hardshell case.

I play original contemporary rock, progressive, blues and some jazz fusion. I think this guitar plugged straight into a clean amp sounds better than any of my other guitars plugged straight in. But of course if I add a little FX, some preamp distortion, compression, etc. and they all sound great.

The general sound of this gutar is somewhat darker than my others. But the out-of-phase "Strat" type sounds are better than my Strat itself as the output is stronger due to the more powerful p/ups on the Charvel. I like all the sounds of this axe and it nicely supplements my other guitars for a change of pace during a set.

Purchased used from a pawn shop this guitar played just fine! The neck trussrod adjustment is located at the base of the neck which is a hassle when adjusting the relief. Everything fits nice and tight.

If I were going to put more money into this guitar I would change out the bridge/tremolo to a better one. I did have to have the p/up switch changed. It comes stock with a plastic box type 5-way switch which went bad. My guitar tech installed a regular Fender-type 5-way switch and it should prove to be more heavy-duty.

The volume control is located too close to the bridge/strings for my way of playing. I tended to accidentally hit the control and turn down the guitar unintentially. My solution was to replace the original knob with a much smaller one salvaged from a Boss FX pedal. Now it's out of the way yet still easy to adjust when I want to do so.

Strong as steel! I've had the guitar for about 2 years and use it on gigs with my Fender Strat and Ibanez JS1000. With the new switch I love this guitar (except for that trussrod adjustment thing!). But I'd never play without a backup! Or a good tuner.

N/A.

I've been playing for about 30 years. My guitars include a '93 Fender USA Strat; 2002 Ibanez JS1000; 2003 PRS Budweiser CE; 2003 Ibanez AS83. Amps/FX are a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe with Winged C 6L6's; Rocktron Prophesy rack preamp/FX; Peavey Classic Series 120 rack tube power amp; modified Marshall 50 watt Plexi reissue; vintage Vox early '70's 2-12 cabinet with newer Celestion Vintage 30's; Dunlop Dimebag Crybaby wah; AB-Y switcher. I run 2 amps at the same time - one has a direct feed from the Crybabyto the Fender amp giving me a clean sound all the time, the other feed goes to the Prophesy and has all the FX and distortion and drives the more powerful rig. Makes for a better, "wider" sound that I prefer.

If I could get another one of these Charvels for the same or less money I might buy another. Due to the inconvenient neck truss rod adjustment and need to replace the p/up switch (those cheapo plastic ones WILL go bad), I'd have to think about it. And I really prefer the feel of the Ibanez JS1000 (it's my main guitar - I'd LOVE another one!). However, if it happened to have a Sustainer system preinstalled I'd whip out the credit card and it'd be mine in a heartbeat! Still, for the priceit's hard to beat.

I figured I'd come back after almost 4 years and say a little more... all features are outlined below. It's pretty basic.

I have now been playing guitar for 7 years, and this has been my main axe for all 7. I love this guitar and am constantly looking for others. Now that I have an all tube amp (Hughes and Kettner Triamp), I have really been able to test the versatility of this guitar. I can get any sound I need to out of it! I play in a Christian metal band (www.uncondemned.com), but we also do Praise and Worship from time to time. I just use the single and neck humbucker for AWESOME clean sounds and praise and worship sounds and just slam it to the bridge bucker for awesome gain. I can DEFINITELY tell a difference in the output of the bridge humbucker compared to the other two. My amp distorts much quicker with the neck. I love messing around with the single coil for different crunchy or bluesy sounds with the triamp. I would like to get another one of these and just mod it, but they're really hard to come by. If you have one to sell, please let me know! I'm thinking about replacing my bridge humbucker with another, but I'm not positive yet. I really kind of don't want to mess with it from fear of screwing it up, but we'll see.

Again, this guitar has awesome action on it and was very well put together. I think mine is from 89 based on the inspection stickers on the back of the humbuckers. The only thing about it is that I have to take the neck humbucker and lower the bass side much more than the treble to balance it out, but that was a simple and easy fix. I've never tried to adjust the trussrod... as stated below, I thought there wasn't one, but a guy below me said there is, you just have to take the neck off. It's adjusted fine for now. :) A point for that because it's annoying, but doesn't have to be done. (for me, anyways)

I gig with this thing literally every week (not just Church, but we play at different Christian clubs and events almost every weekend). It has not let me down yet. Strings break, of course, but this has only happened to me maybe 3 times while at a gig. Most of the time it's at practice. :)

Never dealt with them, but I would imagine they wouldn't even touch this guitar, of which is fine because I really do not see any problems occuring in the future that I can't fix or have a local tech fix.

I have been playing for 7 years now and still love this guitar. I don't have any plans of ever getting rid of it. There will probably come a day when I find a guitar that I love about as much as it, but this guitar is awesome because it is just a great guitar and was my first guitar. I went from a Champion 110, to a POD with the next few amps, to a Marshall Valvestate 2x12, to a Valvestate 4x12, then I got a Marshall 1960BV, then I sold the Valvestate combo and bought a Mesa 20/20 (of which is a GREAT rack power amp... only sold to buy the next amp) to use with my POD, and just a few weeks ago I sold those to put a downpayment on a Triamp (of which is an AWESOME amp... very versatile. I'm going to review it in a couple of months when I have more time with it and know it better). I also have an Alesis Q20 for effects, a Boss SD-1 for some praise and worship sounds, etc. I have an Ibanez AE18 Acoustic/Electric (great acoustic for the price) and a Tascam US-428.

Strat style guitar, which was made in the early 1990's. Solid body, with H/S/H, and a 5 way selector switch. It's got a vintage style tremolo. 22 HUGE frets! Gotoh Tuners, composite carbon fiber nut. You need to remove the neck to adjust the truss rod.

I found this guitar listed in a 1993 Musicians Friend Catalog with a list price of $388.90, and they were selling it for 239.88. Which is less than I paid for it used!!!!

I bought this with the expectation of changing out the pickups, but they actually sound pretty good. They are medium output with good clarity. By pushing the distortion on your amp, you can get some good heavy metal sounds, but it also cleans up nicely for good crunch sounds. It doesn't have good sustain, but I didn't buy it for that.

I had been eyeing this guitar in a used shop for a couple of years, and I finally decided to buy it. For a guitar that is over 10 years old, the neck was straight and there was little wear. The previous owner must not have played it much, because there was no fret wear. I love the tuners and the nut 'cos the guitar stays in tune after some intense string bending.

I am not a professional musician, and I haven't had a chance to play it in a really loud setting, so I wouldn't know if the pickups will feedback or not. I bought this guitar on a whim, and I'm glad I did. I play it quite often now. It seems to have held up nicely over the years.

I've been playing for about 13 years now and I have owned and played several guitars. I was looking for an inexpensive guitar to kick around and this guitar blows away any $250 guitar available today. In fact, I thought that this would have retailed for about $500 new. Boy was I surprised when I found out that I paid more for it used than it costed new! Who would have thought we would be saying this about a Charvel, but "They sure don't make them like they used to."

this guitar is HSH pickup setup with jackson pickups. the trem is a strat non locking trem. one tone one volume 5 way switch. alder body maple neck rosewood and JUMBO frets.

PERFECT i play nirvana, hendrix, ccr, silverchair and many more sound just like the CD. NICE JACKson pickups.

i Got used for 70 BUCKS YES 70 BUCKS!!! all what is wrong with is the thick glaze finsh was chipping of because the guy that had it was skateboarding and he jumped his skate and drop the guitar(good thing itwas in its case) and puts some chips in the paint but the body. underneth is a nice alder body good grain. Did not effect any thing.

his guitar is the gig master. i want to gig without backup but you might break a string in the mid of show so i have ajunk backup.
not one probem yet i will practice with my band hour on end the only thing that stops me is broken strings. the strap buttons are wayne charvel custum strap buttons huge.

NEver will need it

BEst guitar i have play for the price better than a FENDER GIBSON PRS IBANEZ

I think it was made in Japan, but as other reviewers said I'm not sure....

It's got 3 pickups, hum/single/hum, of which I replaced the bridge with an after market pickup and it made the guitar sound 10x better. (which is good, it already sounded nice!)

The neck is thin, with a rosewood fretboard I think. It looks like this guitar should cost a LOT more than it did.

I give it a 7 because I think it is worth replacing at least the pickup you use the most with something better.

It sounds GOOD. For a guitar that costs a fraction of others out there this thing rocks. The single coil is very bright right out of the box and the tone of the guitar is excellent.

The guitar was set up well, although I have it tweaked every year or so just to keep it in shape. The pickups started a bit low as far as I remember, but they are easily adjusted.

There were no flaws when I got it and the quality of the wood is top notch. Often people commend on how solid the guitar feels. It is amazing how well it all fits together, its like a tank.

I've dropped it, scratched it, and done just about everything else that you can do to your first serious guitar in 8 years. And it still holds up and sounds great.

This is the most solid feeling guitar I may ever own.

I have never had anything to do with them so I will leave this at "No Opinion".

I love this thing. LOVE IT!

As Brendon said if this guitar was lost I would cry. I know there are nicer guitars out there, and yes this one is special because its my first, but also there is just something about it. It sits there next to my (much more expensive) Ovation and I still can't say that I like it any less.

This guitar has something in it that seems to make everyone who owns it fall in love with it.

Just thought I'd let you all know that after about another year (almost) the guitar is still holding up fine and sounding great. One thing, though.....IT DOESN'T HAVE A TRUSS ROD!!!!! This COMPLETELY flipped me out the other day when I had finally decided to adjust it...it wasn't there!! Also, I still have yet to find a use for the neck humbucker...sounds too muddy for anything...so I may replace it. I dont' know. Anyways, my email has changed as well. Again, don't forget to take out the "!NOSPAM!" thingy. I'll correct it on this one. Later!!

First off, I guess, is this guitar is a strat copy, kind of. As far as I know, it was made around 1989, but I'm not positive. The reason I say this is because one day I was cleaning my guitar and I had all the strings off and I had decided to take the pickguard off and on the back of the pickups there was a piece of paper that had a few initials on it and best I could tell, the number 89, so I just kind of guessed that it was made in 1989. This was my first guitar and how lucky I was to get it!!! It has a H-S-H pickup config with Jackson, stock pickups, as far as I know. I did buy this guitar used, by the way. It has one tone, one volume, and a five way toggle switch. It has a kind of cheap tremelo and the headstock is painted. I'm guessing that it was made in Japan, but I just now realized that the initials on the pickups were in English, so the pickups may have been added later. I'm not sure, but if anyone can tell me more about my guitar (that feels a little funny to say) please, please, please write me!!! I'm not really sure what the body wood is, but the neck is maple and the fretboard is rosewood. It has extra large frets and Gotoh tuners that have "Charvel" silkscreened on the back of each one. It's a real, real, dark metallic blue with a black and white 2-ply pick-guard with the black on top. The only reason I give it a seven is because of the tremelo is kind of cheap.

MAN!!! This guitar sounds more than great for what I paid for it!!! WAY MORE!!! I get very, very little hum with it through a 25 watt Fender amp and I have never been successful at making it get feedback through the pickups, even literally right on the amp. I play Christian Rock and Hard Rock, plus Creed. I love the sound of this guitar, for clean, I use the single coil and, man, it has a warm, full sound that I think rocks!! I very rarely use the neck humbucker because it's a little too warm for me, almost muddy. The bridge
humbucker sounds really, really good!! I always have the volume all the way up on my guitar when I'm playing and I put the tone on about 6 1/2 or 7, and man it just rocks. I've been really, really amazed by this guitar. It doesn't have a whole lot of variety, I think it's mostly suited for rock, metal, and maybe jazz, but that's about it. It suits me perfectly, other than the fact that I can't have any tuning I want on it when I want it without having to retune, but oh well. The only complaint I have is that the neck humbucker was really loud on the bass side and so it made my speaker bottom out, but I also only have a 25 watt with a 10" speaker, so I guess this could also be partially the amps fault, as well, but I still give it a ten.

I don't really know how this thing was from the factory, but it was my first guitar and so I didn't really know a whole lot about the set up and I'm just now learning. The pickups are really good, other than the bass thingy on the neck humbucker. Everything on this guitar is actually really good as far as I know. It has a really good feel to it to me and it's, as far as I can tell, been really well made, even if it does have a cheaper tremelo.

This guitar should be able to stand just about any playing, it is very, very solidly built. There is no rust or any corrosion, nothing like that. Everything on this guitar seems solid except the tremelo, but it's not too bad, the only reason I'm using it so much is because it's the only real problem I have with this guitar, and it's relatively minor!!! The finish is nice and thick and the reason I know this is because I dropped another guitar in a hardshell case on it and it chipped quite a bit off of the side of it, all the way to the wood, but it doesn't bother me a whole lot. I can depend, and do depend, on this guitar every day, gigging, practicing, jamming, anything I need. I would gig without a backup for sure, I've had this guitar for almost three years and I've not had one problem with it with the exception of the pickup thingy and my tremelo bar got messed up, but I think I did that by putting it in wrong one day or something.

I've never dealt with Charvel, obviously, but Jackson was a little helpful with what I asked them, and they said they may be reintroducing Charvels in the future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I guess that's kind of beside the point, but very cool info if you're a Charvel fan, so I give them a 9.

I've been playing for almost three years and I own this guitar, an Ibanez acoustic/electric, of which is pretty nice, and a Fender Champion 110, of which I reviewed on here, too. If this guitar was stolen, I would honestly cry for a couple of weeks because I don't think I would be able to find another one, but I would probably replace it with another Charvel, a Jackson, an Ibanez, or and ESP. I love just about everything about this guitar!! It has an awesome sound, feel, and playablity. I also love it's neck, it's neck is thin and laminated. It just feels awesome. The only reason I got this one is because they had sold the Squier I was wanting (thank God, literally!!) and I wanted humbuckers, so they showed me this one used and my mouth dropped wide open for a while and then I said "I want it!!" I wish it had a Floyd Rose in a way, but it's not too bad the way it is, gotta love it!! If you EVER have a chance of getting one of these, should you have the luck to find it, GET IT AND HOLD ON TIGHT!! Or, if nothing else, buy it, and contact me to see if I can buy it because I would give almost anything to have another one of these. Please contact me if you have ANY info on this guitar or could help me find some. Remember to take out the "!NOSPAM!" part of the email address if you click on the blue to write me, and oh yeah, THIS SITE IS THE BEST SITE ON THE WHOLE WEB, PERIOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks so much to the guys at Harmony-Central.